Harper Trials
by Shadow Darkholme
Summary: This story takes place before the first BG game. It tells of the trials that Khalid and Jaheira went through to become Harpers. Features a couple ocs. This is my first fanfic so please R&R! *Revising Chapter 5*
1. In the Woods

Hey everyone, this is my first fanfic so please R&R : ) Set before the first BG game, this story tells of Khalid and Jaheira's initiation into the Harpers. You'll see a couple of oc characters in there as well. Hope you enjoy! Oh! By the way, anything in** means thoughts and anything in italics is a flashback.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for a bunch of cd's, a cat, and my oc characters. BG belongs to Bioware.

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Harper Trials: Chapter 1

"Hurry along now! We can't keep Gorion waiting forever and eternity! I swear, if

you two don't move faster I will be forced to light a fire on your backsides!" a beautiful yet obviously very annoyed half-elven women said, stepping hurriedly along the forest path.       

"Who died and made her Queen of Amn? I swear if she starts rambling about Gorion and the Harpers again I'm gonna…" the other female in the groups' threat was then unfortunately interrupted. 

"N-Now now Shadow, I-I'm sure Jaheira means well. She j-just knows we're in a h-hurry. That's all." Came the unfortunate stutter of a man who was most likely going to have Shadow's bad mood and complaints unloaded upon him. 

The elven thief, Shadow Darkholme, then looked over at the barely visible figure of her nervous companion. "Don't start with me Khalid. You know me better than anyone and you know that when my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurts, and I'm frozen solid that it is not a good time to start with me. Besides, even you can't be optimistic enough to say that we're going to make it to town by midnight! So why don't we just rest and start in the morning!? Is that too much to ask?" luckily she ran out of breath before she could continue her tangent. 

Anyone else would have cringed or started worrying when she started going on like that, but as she had said Khalid knew her rather well and was pretty much used to it. However, he knew that when she got too angry BAD things tended to happen.  He remembered quite clearly what happened last time she lost it.

"What do you mean you don't have any fire wine OR any rooms available? What kind of inn is this?"  Shadow had bellowed at the rather smug looking innkeeper. 

_"You heard what I said, now get out before I have you thrown out!" The next thing anyone knew, Shadow had grabbed the Wand of Magic Missiles that they had found and started randomly firing it in every direction. Needless to say, the inn didn't look good afterwards and the trio had gotten kicked out of town. For how long they weren't sure but they decided they'd better not risk going back any time soon. Surprisingly though, no one had been seriously hurt, of course Shadow's aim never was that good…_

Khalid shuddered visibly at the memory. *I still can't believe what she tends to do when she's angry. Jaheira was rather angry afterwards, that could be why she is trying to ignore Shadow's continued ramblings. I probably should do something however* 

"Um.. J-Jaheira, if I may say something? I b-believe that we should r-rest soon. Besides shouldn't we be f-fully rested by the time we meet up with G-Gorion?" she spun around and gave them both one of her patented death glares. Khalid flinched rather badly at the sight, but considering most men would've fainted, that's not bad. Shadow on the other hand merely threw her one of her own

.

 After a rather long stare-fight (during which Khalid was rather uncomfortable), Jaheira finally backed down and said, " Fine, we rest here for the night. But we shall awake bright and extremely early tomorrow morning! *mumble mumble* Damn, I need to work on my death glares…" the other two cheered happily and immediately started setting up camp. A little while later, and they were fighting over who would be the cook.

"NO! In the Nine Hells NO! I cooked the last two times! It's your turn." Our resident psycho thief screamed at the druid.

"Oh no, you will not use that trick on me again! That is what you said last time! It is your turn to cook!" the druid's anger was becoming evident in her eyes however Shadow wasn't looking too happy either.

"No, my friend, it's your turn!"

"'Tis yours!"

"Yours!"

"Yours!"

Khalid meanwhile, set on a tree stump in the corner of the clearing, wearily rubbing his head**. ***Why must they go through this every time? Once again I'll offer to cook, but no, they cannot settle things the easy way. Oh well here we go.*"M-may I make a suggestion? I c-could cook if you'd l-like."

"Aw, that's sweet, but no, its HER turn!" the thief spoke up first. The fighting then started again but surprisingly ended rather quickly. "Wait! I have an idea."

"That's unusual."

"Shut it tree hugger. Anyway, why don't we let Khalid decide who cooks?" They both looked at her like she was some type of crazy person. (Oh, wait, she is, isn't she?) 

"W-what do you mean b-by that? I don't like w-where this is g-going." He said glancing at both of them apprehensively. 

"I mean you pick which of us is a better cook, and that person will cook from now on and there's no more fighting! *mumble mumble* at least about this…" the women then turned to him and gave him looks that obviously said pick me or die.

*Why does this always happen to me? One of them is going to kill me no matter what I say.* he thought miserably. "W-well, um, I suppose that I would h-have to say…." He glanced around as if looking for an escape. As soon as he saw one he started getting up, "S-Shadow definitely." He started inching toward his exit rather quickly.

Well what do you think? Please R&R, but please no flames. I think it went pretty well for a first try, and if you all like it, then I'll continue with it ; ) It'll probably become more serious later on but for now I'm going for humor.


	2. At the Campsite

Hey all, thank you for the review! I'm glad there's at least one other K&J fanfic fan out there : ) Well, here's the second chapter. Please R&R! Also, the characters may seem a bit ooc, but this is how I imagined they'd act before they became "dignified" Harpers, so please no flames = ) Anything in**means thought, while () is just a comment.

Disclaimer: As stated before I own nothing except a bunch of cds. 

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Chapter 2: At the Campsite

"Excuse me? What do you mean by definitely?" came Jaheira's voice, which was surprisingly calm. When Jaheira's voice was calm, you knew someone was going to be in a world of hurt. Khalid had almost reached his escape route, if only he could make it, just a few more feet…

"Do not ignore me Khalid! What do you mean by definitely? Hey, stop right there! Not one more inch!" While Khalid immediately froze and started stuttering out an answer, Shadow was rolling on the floor with laughter in the background. They both just kind of ignored her: Jaheira was too busy trying to kill Khalid just by looking at him, and Khalid was trying to explain what he had meant without getting himself into further trouble.

"W-well what I meant by that w-was that, well, I believe Shadow cooks better, b-but only because s-she has cooked m-more often! I of c-course didn't mean to offend y-you…" he smiled nervously at her while simultaneously pleading with Shadow (with his eyes) to help him. She just smiled and took a seat on the nearest log to watch the action. Unfortunately, or fortunately in Khalid's case, she wouldn't get much of a show, because Jaheira seemed to calm down, at least a little bit.

*Oh well, she never could stay all that mad at Khalid for very long. And she claims she doesn't like him! Aw, they would look so cute together! Hmmm…* as Shadow started plotting, she saw Jaheira walk over to Khalid. 

"Well, I suppose if that was what you were judging by, I cannot remain angry at you. Hmph! Well, lets go see just how good Shadow's cooking actually is then," and with that she slightly stalked back to the campsite and practically threw herself down upon the nearest log and promptly put her permanent scowl back on her face. "Well? Are you going to demonstrate your wonderful culinary skills or shall we have to starve?"

"Yes your majesty! At once!"

Khalid smiled to himself as he walked back to the camp and made sure to sit nowhere near the two females, in case they decided to go ballistic or to ask him another "question". As the druid and thief began arguing again Khaild chuckled softly and thought, *I'm glad things are back to normal again. That's the last time I try to solve any of their problems. Though I wonder why Jaheira decided to let it go… I certainly didn't make that good of a point, and I sure wasn't convincing. Oh well, at least I got away alive! She can be rather frightening sometimes. I hope I don't get on her bad side too often.*

After a short while and much complaining, the food was finally ready. "Alright, everyone! Step right up and try my famous cooking!"

Everyone got a bowl full and Jaheira immediately ate a large spoonful of the soup like meal. A second later and she was diving for the bread and water, trying to stop the burning on her tongue. "Oh, by the way, it's extremely hot. You may want to blow on it." Shadow added as an afterthought, a mischievous smirk on her lips. Her eyes darted over to Khalid, who in turn was trying his best not to laugh. 

After Jaheira had finally cooled her tongue she was no longer hungry and declared that she would "Never touch another meal that witch made." Shadow pretended to be hurt, but soon was laughing merrily. Finally the trio retired, only to be awoken mere hours later by the loud druid.

"Up, up, up! It is bright, and it is early, and you will get up! DO not growl at me thief! We must get to Harper Hall to meet Gorion sometime today! Ugh! You two are hopeless! I will be back after I finish packing our equipment and if you are not up by then, Silvanus help you!" she marched off with a smile on her lips, obviously pleased with having ruined Shadow's sleep.

"Is she always that loud? What time is it? Never mind just wake me again in a few hours. This had all better be an annoying dream, because no one wakes Shadow Darkholme up before the sun gets up!" she turned over and buried her face in her covers, cursing the tree-hugger the whole time. 

"I-In answer to your questions, y-yes she is always that l-loud, y-you should know that by n-now. As for the t-time, it is simply f-far earlier than it s-should be. I believe you two w-would call this revenge f-for what happened yesterday. However, knowing J-Jaheira, it still would most likely n-not be wise to ignore h-her when she is this a-adamant about something." He looked over only to realize that the thief was completely unconscious and snoring slightly. He sighed loudly. * Am I really that boring?* he thought jokingly to himself.

After simply lying there for a few minutes, he finally got up, repacked his things, threw on his armor, and eventually managed to shake Shadow out of her coma. She wasn't exactly happy about that, cursing under her breath at everything as she stumbled, barely awake through her morning rituals. 

It took Jaheira at least three more warnings before the thief was finally ready to go. Khalid and Jaheira looked at each other and muttered, "she looks undead, are you sure she's alive?" Khalid smiled at her and the trio began moving toward their destination: Baldur's Gate.

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There's chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it, please R&R, it'll keep me writing! Romance will be happening in the next few chapters. Sorry this chapter was kind of short, but I can't write long ones that well. 


	3. Ambush!

Hey all, here's chapter 3, there'll finally be some action in this chapter. As always please R&R! Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own it all! That's right, everything! *Lawyers pop up* Uh, down fellas, I was just kidding, hehe…

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Chapter 3: Ambush!

After roughly six hours of traveling, the trio was very close to their destination. 

*How does anyone put up with her for a long period of time? Nag, complain, and yell! That's all she's capable of doing! Well, I suppose she can also use that stick of hers, as evident by the lump on my head. Khalid and I were both in on that last trick, so why am I the only one that got smacked? Ugh!* As Shadow marched along with the other two she thought this, rubbing the back of her head, occasionally glancing over at them. *Well they seem to have become close pretty soon! Maybe there's hope yet.*

She smiled one of her "I'm plotting something but you'll never find out about it," smiles. Luckily the other two missed it and the trio traveled in silence for a little while.

"It has been a very quiet trip. I was suspecting some sort of monster to attack, considering we are in the middle of nowhere." Jaheira muttered under her breath, looking slightly bored.

"Don't say that! Your gonna jinx us! Especially if…" but they didn't get to hear whatever she was going to say next, because suddenly quite a few arrows came hurtling out of the thick cover of trees, straight toward Shadow. With a couple of back flips, she easily avoided them, but one managed to nick her shoulder. 

"OW! See? What did I tell ya? You and your big mouth!" with that the three drew their weapons and headed in the direction the attack had come from. Their attackers met them halfway.

"Hobgoblins? I h-have never seen any this far n-north!" Khalid muttered quietly, as he quickly dodged a sword-swing and countered with one of his own. The sound of swords clashing disturbed the peacefulness of the forest. Jaheira meanwhile smashed it upside the head with her staff, while Khalid ran it through with his sword. 

Across the clearing, Shadow was dealing with two of them at once. Blocking one attack with her double swords, she spun to avoid the other hobgoblins attack, which just happened to hit the first across the chest. Enraged it began attacking the other while Shadow took advantage of the situation by sneaking behind each in turn and sliding one of her poisoned daggers in between their ribs. Both fell without a clue as to what had happened. Shooting a smug smirk at her two dead attackers, she glanced over to see how Khalid and Jaheira were doing. Khalid managed to slay his third hobgoblin with a quick swing and a mighty thrust.

 Jaheira had finished hers off by now and was busy administering healing spells. When she made it over to the thief, she seemed surprised. "How did you not get a scratch on you, besides for the arrow wound?"

"Call it luck. Or skill. Or both, since that's what it was." She smiled and laughed, "You two on the other hand look, well, bad!"

They then began checking the bodies to see if there was anything they could use. "W-What in the world is t-this?" Khalid held up what looked like a small brooch that he had gotten off what was obviously the leader of the group. Shadow peered at it curiously for a few seconds, then suddenly snatched it from Khalid's grasp. "Wait a minute, there's a name engraved on the back. Who the? What's a Murdock?" she looked up completely confused.

"I h-have heard of him! H-He was a slave trader, I-if I remember correctly. But n-no ones seen him in y-years! Why would they have a b-brooch with his n-name on it?" 

Looking troubled Jaheira said, "I do not know, but I believe that Gorion would know. Just another reason why we should make haste to Baldur's Gate." The other two agreed and they immediately began heading toward their destination once again.

Meeting no new enemies along the way, they arrived shortly before nightfall, and entered the well-guarded city without problems. Eventually finding a suitable inn, Khalid praying that nothing would happen this time, they agreed to go to the Hall first thing in the morning. 

As they ordered their drinks, they were all happy and relieved to her that the inn had Firewine in stock. Shadow ordered the Firewine (of course), Khalid the mead, and Jaheira a Spring Tea. The minute they got their drinks the thief challenged her fighter companion to a drinking contest, which he readily accepted. During their third round a shadow (not the one we know!) suddenly fell over the thief. She looked up to hear, "Mind if I join you?"

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How'd ya like it? Hmm well: Who is Murdock? What does he want with our heroes? Who is the shadow? I'm not even really sure yet lol : ) Please R&R!     


	4. Tavern Talk

Hey all here's Chapter 4. Sorry if it's not that good, my muse abandoned me! Grr..

Disclaimer: I own nothing as usual

Reviews: Thanks for the reviews! I'm so happy people like my story! Keep em coming!

Kezya: The Great Revenge was an awesome story; I had to put you on the list! = )

Suicide Minion: Thanks for the opinions, they're really good. Don't worry; I'll make sure to make Jaheira show her nice side once in a while. You might even see it in this chapter.

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Chapter 4: Tavern Talk

"Davoren! How've ya been? Long time no see!" Shadow immediately jumped up and greeted her tall, black-haired, red-eyed friend with a tight hug. He smiled and returned it as Khalid and Jaheira exchanged looks of confusion. 

"Hey Shadow, should've known I'd find you in a tavern." He laughed as she smacked him on the arm. "Who are these two?" he glanced over at them curiously.

As the thief pushed him into the nearest chair and ordered him a drink (firewine, like herself), she introduced his to the other two. "Davoren, meet Khalid and Jaheira, we're going to meet Gorion tomorrow so that they can begin the Trials." 

"We should have been here yesterday…" the druid muttered under her breath.

Drinking down his Firewine with one swig, he told the waitress to keep them coming. Looking the two Harpers in Training over, he finally said, " So you two are going to be the newest addition to the Harper ranks then? You look capable enough."

"Coming from him that's a huge compliment!" the thief said grinning.

"Oh shut up. Anyway, Lord knows we could use more recruits."

The other three looked up at that. "W-What do you mean by t-that? What h-happened to the others?" 

Davoren gave Khalid a studying look. *My, he's a nervous one isn't he? He's supposed to be a fighter? Are you sure about these two Shadow?* "Oh, there's no real need to worry. The missions are just getting harder, either that or the recruits are getting softer." That didn't seem to comfort them any though.

Drinking a bit from his mead, Khalid examined the newcomer. *He must be a Harper to know so much about them. I wonder how he and Shadow met? I did not think that she was already a Harper…*

Noticing that the fighter was staring at him, Davoren cleared his throat slightly. " Did you have a question?"

Khalid jumped slightly, not realizing he had zoned out. "N-no, sorry, just thinking. Actually, m-might I ask what it is you d-do?"

"Also if you don't mind my asking, but how did you two meet? Shadow rarely talks of herself." Jaheira inquired suddenly.

"For good reason too." The thief said while drinking her Firewine, but the other three were ignoring her as usual.

Smiling Davoren replied, "Of course. I am a bard, a Blade to be exact, in the service of the Harpers. I have been for many years now. Shadow is an assassin for them, as she may or may not have told you." Judging by their sudden surprised glances at the rogue he guessed she hadn't. "We are childhood friends, we grew up together in Beregost and joined the Harpers roughly fifty years ago. I haven't seen her in a while though; Gorion had recently sent me on a mission to discover the plans of some man named Murdock. He has been sending spies to kill off our scouts." The trio seemed rather shocked at this new information and stared at him unbelievingly. 

Jaheira found her voice first. "Did you say Murdock?" at the bard's confused nod she continued, "His agents attacked us earlier today. However they were hobgoblins and easily disposed of."   
Looking shocked at the news, Davoren quickly recovered and asked them if they had any proof that they were indeed Murdock's troops. Shadow suddenly "Ooh!"ed and began searched frantically through her pack for the brooch. After a few minutes of digging through her extremely messy backpack, she finally found it and triumphantly held it up for the bard to see.

"That looks exactly like the one we got off of the bandits that attacked us the other day! Gorion seemed disturbed by the news so he sent me to investigate it. I found nothing though. You should still report your findings to Gorion however," he looked slightly troubled as if there was something more to it that he wasn't mentioning. 

Jaheira was the only one who noticed, but before she could really tell, he had put his charming smile back on his face. *He is leaving something out. I know it. I wonder, can we truly trust him?* she smiled back and took a sip of her tea. "Well I'm sure all of this talk can wait till tomorrow. For now we should simply relax."

Khalid and Shadow just stared at her for a few seconds. "What?" 

"Nothing, I just didn't know you knew how to relax! I'm so proud!" they laughed and began talking.

Hours and quite a few drinks later, most of the patrons had left up to their rooms. Davoren was asleep on the table in a drunken coma, while Khalid looked as if he was going to pass out at any second. The two females looked at each other and tried to stifle their laughter, especially when Khalid finally hit the table with a loud thunk. 

"Those two never could hold their liquor. Aww, aren't they cute?" Shadow said sarcastically. 

Jaheira smiled, "Oh yes, especially the way your boyfriend is drooling over there." 

The thief blushed slightly at "boyfriend" then laughed, "Him? Puhleeze! Anyway, you're just jealous. But hey, you've got Khalid, and he's a pretty nice prize himself!" Jaheira turned beet-red as she started stuttering for an answer. "Aha! I knew you had a thing for him!" 

The druid glanced up at her last comment, "And how, may I ask, did you figure that out?"

Smiling mischievously, Shadow replied, " Well lets see, anyone else who got on your bad side would soon meet with your staff, evidence of which is still on my head by the way, but you didn't do anything to him when he insulted your cooking. Then you helped him fight the uglies, and you keep shooting him glances. That's how I figured it out."

Jaheira's mouth dropped open then she laughed happily. "I had no idea I was being so blatant about it! I wonder does he have any idea?" she stole another glance at the peacefully sleeping fighter. "What am I saying? I should not be acting this way…let us change the subject."

Looking at her for a second the thief sighed softly.*Darn, and I almost had her convinced that liking someone is a good thing! Ahh well, at least now there's hope for her!*

Jaheira suddenly asked, "That friend of yours, Davoren, he seems slightly…odd. His eyes for example, they are bright red, have they always been like that? He also seems to be hiding something from us…"

Shadow suddenly turned rather cold. Staying silent for a few minutes, she finally said something that made Jaheira's blood run cold. "Your right he isn't exactly normal, and no, he wasn't always like this. Something happened a long time ago, I'd love to tell you but I just can't trust anyone that much yet." She stood up right after that, and began walking up the steps, leaving Jaheira shocked and alone with the two sleeping men.

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Whew, it's done. I rewrote this chapter sooooo many times! It changed completely each time, but this one was definitely the best draft. What is Davoren's secret? Can he be trusted? Who is Murdock and what does he have against the Harpers? Stay tuned to find out! As always please R&R!

By the way, if you're shocked at how long Davo and Shadow have been in the Harpers, remember that they're both elves, so it's not that long for them.


	5. Author's Note

Author's Note:

            Hey all. I've taken down and am redoing chapter 5, because I'm sure that anyone who read it realized that it sucked. To put it mildly. I revealed to much, to soon, so I'm going to rewrite it and hopefully make it better. To all of you who read it: try to block it out and forget. Thanks! Love ya! The rewrite should be up soon. By the way school's about to start so my updates will probably become fewer and farther in between. I'll try my best though!

                                                                                                                                                                                                             -Shadow Darkhome


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